WK1

Wow! You must have spent lots of time thinking and typing that post.
I will give you just a short reply first, and later a longer one

Not to worry. A great majority of the people here do NOT believe in the nonsense about bromance. Those who push the Haoyan couple up and push the GeSun couple down are either Lusi fans, or are simply baffled by the complexity a plot they cannot understand.

I will address your other points later, as you made a lot of points and I want to read in greater detail

Here I wiil type some reflections on her journey in decision making
1. Many have commented that she was impulsive. This is true. She was a smart kid. She knew it. She thought she could take revenge on her own. But she failed. Li Si Min was more skillful than her
2. So, she decided maybe she needed more firepower.
3. Meanwhile, all this time, she encounter enemies from within - people wanting to catch her, people wanting the seal back, etc. But these were all Tang people
3. At Shouzhou, she encounter her first external enemy, the Turks
4. And she encounter the first person who would put the life of Tang citizens above his own: Gongsun Heng
5. In the manhua, she would use the term, "for the greater good". This is term commonly used in ethical decision making.
6. This would be the first point of change in her life, because to understand this phrase, she had already undergone a mental change. Because "the greater good" makes her weigh her private desire to take revenge and kill Li Si Min, compared with what he can do for Tang, if he were alive. This would later cause her to put aside her private desire to kill Li Si Min, and instead saved him, because she did her calculations and still believed that her uncle was the best bet that Tang had in fighting against the Turks
7. The ability to make complex calculations very likely caused her to surrender to Ashile Sun. She knew, they were outnumbered. More fighting would mean more Tang soldiers will die. The ordinary citizens will suffer even more
8. This would mark the most pivotal change in her decision making style. It would not be her last, as she was still young and still learning

Li Changge's journey in decision making

Don't worry. You made sense. They are indeed a great couple. They would provide the first warm environment for Li Changge, since she left Chang'an. They made her feel very welcomed, like she is part of their family. And, of course, they served as the catalyst for Changge to find her path.

That is a favourite of many people here

The director and his team spent a lot of effort teaching her how to walk and behave like a guy. The costume department also did a great job. So I must say she did pretty well. Guess those who are picking on her are just grabbing on anything possible, and hope that something will stick

Are you new? You have some comments before, but no one has formally welcome to this forum. May I have the pleasure of welcoming you to this family here. Majority are fans of the GeSun couple, in short, supporting Dilraba and Wu Lei. There are also some Haoyan supporters here.

That is a really cute BTS. I must have watched it like 5-6 times. Yes, with her hair tied up, indeed those two side locks becomes rather distinctive. In the manhua, I think those two side locks were even longer.

I think Ashile Sun's full battle gear is most eye-catching. Makes him look every bit the grassland warrior.

Maybe when I am done, I will. I will also need to see, how much interests people have with all these comparisons, and whether these comparison are really useful to help us appreciate the drama more.

When the writers adapted the manhua into they drama, they really did make quite a bit of change. They kept the key characters the same (especially AS and CG). But lots of the other stuff, they changed. Shiba looks very different in the manhua, compared to the drama. Lots of other changes as well, and I doubt it is really important to note all the differences.

We will need an entire 400-page book, to note all the differences between the manhua and the drama, and I am not quite sure which are the differences people are interested in and which are really unimportant

1. Lots of people here love Ashile Sun's hair. Even the actor himself. There was a BTS of him stroking his hair (almost like girl) and Dilraba was with him and she was just laughing away. Not sure if you have seen that BTS
2. She'er, he has nice hair too. But a little different from AS. They have to make it different from AS's hair, or else viewers might get confused between the two, especially from the back.
3. Mimi - She does have beautiful hair. In the manhua it is golden blond in colour (hope I remember this correctly)
4. Mujin - normal hair
5. Changge, most times, tied up, especially the arc when she was pretending to be guy. But later on, even when she is done doing that, it was still tied up. Dilraba has very beautiful long hair. I think from a filming perspective, more practical to have them tied. As you noted, it was let down at the temple, and it was beautiful (but of course it would be, because when it is let down, it would be Dilraba). I remember one old timer mentioned that she would have loved to see Changge with her long hair.

In the manhua, Li Changge also let her hair down a few times. It was really long. From the back, her hair will reach all the way down to her waist. And it would be very beautiful.

But her signature hairstyle in the drama and the manhua would be the two long strands by the side of her face. It is very unique and it makes her easily recognisable.

I remember one commentator mentioned that she loved it so much, she imitated that hairstyle for a while and she absolutely loved it

We have talked about this issue a number of time. I am right there, at the point where AS and CG are talking about that snow walk. It seems that walking out in the snow was never CG's idea to begin with. It was AS who wanted to make CG do it. Why? Perhaps it was to humiliate the losing army? It was the Eastern Turks' way to humiliate those that they have defeated?

Indeed, walking barefoot in the snow affected CG's healthy, and she would cough really badly. Sometimes, even blood.

And AS would tell CG, it is one of the things he regretted doing. CG would deny that walking barefoot made her sick, maybe to make him feel better. But if she did not have any old illness from the time she was at the palace, or even when she was with the Gongsun couple, then very likely walking barefoot in the snow lowered her body resistance whatever viruses that were out there and made her sick. Especially when she was not wearing any warm clothes in that surrender scene.

Anyway, we are glad they did away with making her really sickly in the drama. And Reba was able to do the scene wearing shoes instead of being barefoot.

Manhua, Vol 6: Chapter 33-39, around page 151-152, why did Changge even walked barefoot in the snow?

Can I be totally honest? I don't usually go into this kind of mode. To micro analyse everthing in this drama. But when fellow viewers come along and ask interesting questions and make some interesting comments, it just make me want to go back and re-watch many of those scenes, and squeeze everything out of it.

If anything, I am just a good juicer.

If you feel the way you do about the increase in romance, it just means that the screenwriters made the right decision. And drama viewers are somewhat unlike manhua lovers. The longer romantic relationship does extent the manhua, somewhat. Had Xia Da be allowed to continue her drawings, she could well have written more romance into the story. Since she could not, she must extremely pleased that the drama writers decide to do so.

The longer arc of their love story gave us opportunities to see that side of Ashile Sun manhua readers will never be able to do so. You have already described it so perfectly.

Since you only have 2 episodes left, I will not spoil your fun. Finish the drama, and let us know about you feel about Leyan and Hao Du. And the exclusion of the arc that shows her biological relations to the Mobei king. Whether as a whole, you are pretty happy with this drama adaptation of the manhua.

We can only gauge Dilraba's personality from the many interviews she has given. She came across as a very down to earth kind of person. For a big star, she is incredibly well connected to all her fans. She takes time to film interviews for them, interact with them. And, in those interviews, she does not come across as someone with a chip on her shoulders. Someone from Greece she met just for a short while would end up giving a precious gift to her, showing just how much impact she can have on people. So, she must have an incredible personality, that is so likeable.

She is also scandal free, meaning, she will not do anything that will garner bad publicity. She donotes to many worthwhile causes and many of her fans imitate her example.

She has many commercial contracts with lots of products. You can just google her and some of it will be stated in wikipedia. What is interesting is that, whenever China is attacked in anyway by those product owners, she will dump them immediately, showing that she chose allegiance to China over money.

All the above actions won her legends of fans in China and worldwide.

Many of us would be drawn to her first because of her beauty. That is understanable . But we will respect her even more, if we know what she does off screen.

Oh, that actress from General and I, she is very famous in China. She is very beautiful too! But she cannot act well. She has very big beautiful eyes. And she is very good for opening her big eyes in lots of scenes. But acting wise, she cannot be compared to Dilraba. Unless we equate good acting with size of their eyes.

What is so interesting about that actress? Even her own husband said that she cannot act well.

Yes, indeed very very quick learner. You have read the manhua, am I right? So, you will recall the scene at the Liuyun Temple, where she will ask those farmers how they planted their rice and so on. She was always listening, observing how the rice terraces were set out. These are things she did not see at the palace. So, she was just soaking it in, learning about rice planting and agriculture.

I did not finish the manhua yet, but in the drama, the example maybe different, but the idea is the same, that she will quickly learned about medicine and be able to help those were sick or injured. She is just like a sponge, in terms of learning.

And yes, the change in her character, it was very realistic. Did not happen overnight, like she had taken a potion or something and just suddenly woke up the next morning a totally new person.

In terms of casting, the producer and director made the perfect choice. Her physical resemblance to the Changge in the manhua is just unbeliveable, particularly her face. And the fact that she is taller and bigger than the Changge in the manhua also makes it a big more realistic. If they had chosen a real 15-year girl to portray her, and one that is much shorter and smaller in size, it will make many of the fighting scenes in the drama less realistic. She would have looked like a character right out of a Marvel movie.

Xia Da's legal issue is still hanging in the air. It will be a while before she can continue with her original story of Li Changge.

Oh no! You must not stop! You have already invested so much time, to watch up to Episode 13. Episodes 14 and 15 will have some of the most iconic scenes in this entire drama and some of the best fighting scenes. That is way this drama is written. Each episode will build on the previous one, and it will keep getting better and better, when you understand the storyline.

That is the way this story is written. It is a bottle of wine, to be sipped slowly. Not a bottle of coke.

Actually, this part of the story as very much central to the entire plot. You rightly noted, they were indeed enemies at this point in time. But in another few episodes, they will be together. Technically, they will still be from the opposite sides. But in another 2-3 episodes you will see that they will indeed be working on the same side. Not quite doing things together yet, because they are still learning and discovering about each other.

It has to be this way, because their relationship will develop slowly, not in an instant. That would not be realistic at all.

Ok, upon re-watch of you scene, here would be my reply. If you take a closer look, you will notice that AS actually stopped the Eagle's division a distance away from where Changge and the Tang soldiers were fighting the Bear's division. He and Mujin witnessed the Bear soldier running away and saw how fierely the Tang soldiers were fighting.

Of course, the camera angle will show that AS had spotted Changge among the Tang soldiers and was really out for blood. He could probably tell from her facial expression that something bad must have happened to triggle that much hate in Changge.

And, we need to keep in mind, AS had already fallen in love with Changge. If he were to charge forward, they would be fighting each other, which would be the last thing he wanted to do. So, when Mujin suggested the Tang soldiers were willing to fight till death and it would not be good to confront them in that state, AS ordered his troops to withdraw.

But, a few soldiers from the Eagle's division had already charged forward, before AS gave the order to retreat. Hence, we still see a few soldiers dressed in the same uniform fighting each other. This would be real Tang soldiers fighting the fake ones (from the Eagles' division), but not very large scale, because the bulk of the Eagle's division soldiers had been ordered to halt by AS.

If this is the issue that brought you and your boyfriend to question to ask how could they differentiate each other and not kill the 'wrong' soldiers, the simple explanation could be that no matter how good the imitation, Tang and the fake soldiers could see the differences in each other's battle armour.

Tang armour of that period was very distinctive. In fact, you could google and find pictures of it on the internet. So, I suspect they could still differentiate each other from some differences in each other's battle armour and not kill the wrong guys. Could be their helmet, or the size of those metal plates they wore, or something. We cannot tell from our TV screen, because it will be too small for us to see the differences. But, in real life, I think they could.

Which is why, you will notice the soldier that was going after Changge from her back. That soldier was dressed in Tang soldier uniform. Yet, he was going after her. That means he could tell from Changge's battle gear that she is from Tang, and will not be killing the wrong guy.

Now, it is quite interesting, don't you think? If that guy is a fake Tang soldier, that means he is from the Eagle's division. And it shows that AS was willing to kill one of his own men, in oder to save Changge. That is why Mujin looked very shocked to see him shooting one of his own men.

That would be my observation.